Texas Football: A Look at Longhorns in the NFL

The 2019-2020 NFL season ended last Sunday with bright red confetti flying over Hard Rock Stadium in Miami as Kansas City raised the Vince Lombardi trophy. A huge congratulations to the Midwestern city, as well as our very own Alex Okafor (UT ’09-’12) who rejuvenated his career with 5 sacks and a forced fumble in 10 games this season as a starting linebacker for the Chiefs’ defense. With Okafor’s solid performance in mind, it’s time to rank the top three Longhorns in the NFL during the 2019-2020 season.

• Jordan Hicks, MLB, Arizona Cardinals: The standout middle linebacker played every snap for Arizona this season. Despite the overall disappointing performance of the defense as a whole, Hicks’ individual 2019-2020 campaign was nothing short of impressive, as the Super Bowl LII Champion (with the Philadelphia Eagles) recorded 150 tackles, 2 forced fumbles and 3 interceptions. Hicks, who signed a four-year $36 million contract with Arizona prior to the 2019 season, should continue to be an anchor in the Cardinals defense as they look to continue to improve in the 2020 season with head coach Cliff Kingsbury and former 1st overall pick Kyler Murray both entering their sophomore seasons in the NFL.

• Justin Tucker, Kicker, Baltimore Ravens: What else can we say about this guy? The Austin-native, who concluded the 118-game rivalry between Texas and Texas A&M with a game-winning field goal as time expired in 2011, has been one of the top kickers in the nations ever since entering the NFL in 2012. The 4x 1st Team All-Pro and 3x Pro Bowler (both in 2019 as well) showed once again his quality as he converted 97% of his field goals and extra-point attempts during the year. Absolutely automatic. The Pro Bowler will continue to kick in Baltimore through the 2023 season with a four-year $23 million extension that Tucker signed last April – one of the most lucrative deals seen by a kicker in NFL history.

• Kenny Vaccaro, SS, Tennessee Titans: Kenny finished his 2019 regular season campaign with 84 tackles, five pass deflections, and an interception. With this, what allowed Kenny to crack our top three longhorns list for the season is his outstanding role in leading the Titans secondary to one of the most surprising, Cinderella postseason runs that the league has ever seen. Entering the playoff as a quiet 6-seed in the wildcard slot, the Titans shocked the world by beating Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Foxborough after the Vaccaro-led Titans defense paralyzed Tom Brady to just 209 yards and an interception; allowing just 13 points the Patriots. Next, Vaccaro contributed an interception against the NFL MVP, Lamar Jackson, as the Titan’s defense held the Ravens to just 12 points – their lowest point total of the season – to clinch an AFC championship appearance. Vaccaro will look to keep this momentum going into the 2020 season, as the Titans extended the former first-round pick with a four-year $26 million contract last March.

Noteable mentions: Earl Thomas III came back from injury and plugged right into the starting rotation in the Baltimore secondary. Connor Williams, the sophomore OT for the Dallas Cowboys, started 10 games for one of the league’s best offensive lines and should continue to be a factor in years to come.